January 26, 2005

• Other Christians are also advised to stop practicing yoga immediately.
• "Christians practicing yoga need to cease immediately, repent of it, and ask God's forgiveness." Oh my... hee.
• except "yoga" doesn't come from "yoke", it comes from a sanskrit word meaning "union", but whatever. I worked at a yoga studio and one woman actually asked us if it was OK for a christian to do yoga. An instructor responded that yoga can teach you how to meditate, but it doesn't choose what you meditate to. The author of this article would do good to learn that distinction, since I've met many christians who have said that they dedicate their yoga practice to jesus.
• And i thought the Christians who didn't like Halloween were strange...
• Yoga can lead to pot smoking. At least friends I know that run a yogi studio.
• christians give christians a bad name.
• I'm sick of christians.
• The Yoga of Jesus
• Witnesses also think that blood transfusions, the cross, and Easter are all un-Christian. Hell, I think I read in the Watchtower that Mofi is strictly prohibited by the Bible. You fucking sinners.
• Praise Moves ugh
• For goodness' sake! Yoga is Hinduistic. Christians should have nothing to do with Shiva, Kali, or any of the other rivals to YHWH. They might be bigger and beat him up.
• My god has more arms than your god.
• And sexier statues.
• To read the link is to inhale deeply from the open bloom of ignorance.
• A trifle narrow-minded, indeed. On the other hand, there is something a bit unedifying about the way Westerners feel free to grab any fragment of someone else's culture which appeals to them, divorce it from its context, and reinterpret it as a diet plan or a get-rich-quick scheme. And these things can be dangerous, you know. I had a friend who was led into crime through yogic meditation. He came out of a trance one day and found himself in the middle of swiping someone's pic-a-nic basket. It did make him smarter than the average bear, though.
• Hilarious.
• I feel properly scathed.
• (6) "And the LORD went on to saith, after He proscribeth against the consuming of the flesh of the swine and the crustacean (even unto mattering not that thou hast a Frigidaire), (7)after He proclaimeth that the Chosen shall forswear replacing thy blood with the blood of others, even others from amongst the Chosen, as that is icky in His sight, (8) and after He squincheth His glorious eyes at the Bunny of Cadbury and denounceth it as an abomination, (9) the Chosen beseecheth the Lord, saying unto Him "Lord, tho we hath naught tasted the bacon, nor even the Sizzlean (which is obviously of the Fallen), we are yet corpulent in your grace, and truth be told a little crampy, and thus desireth to stretch well, to twist in all directions, and be empty of charleyhorses!" (10) and the LORD replieth, "Thou tubby Chosen! In My wisdom, I have given unto you the Charleyhorses of the Lord! Whosoever stretcheth to ameliorate My gifts shall be abhorrent in my sight!" -Ezekiel 2, verses 6-10
• ...And the LORD did give unto Fes an banana, saying "Verily thou art an hoot."
• By the way, Watchtower is not a choice for Christians. Jehovah's Witnesses don't believe in the trinity, in the divinity of Christ, or in heaven and hell. But now the devil is divided against himself, and his house must fall. I think my universe is beginning to cave in.
• Failing to be interested in the Nicene creed does not disqualify a person from being a Christian, Skrik.
• I'm sick of christians. Nostril: I sooooo hear you on this one. It's really bad, but I'm getting to the point where when someone says, "I'm a Christian, I immediately think: you asshole." Verily I say unto you that you shall recognize the End Time by the stupidification of all Christians.
• Ah, lets give our Christian friends a break. They find solace and inspiration in their beliefs. Many (most? I dunno) find it a way to strive toward perfection. I don't always agree with the paths they choose, but I've met a lot who wowed me with their devotion, and their spiritual progress. On an individual basis, it isn't so different from any other spiritual journey.
• Ah, lets give our Christian friends a break. They find solace and inspiration in their beliefs. Many (most? I dunno) find it a way to strive toward perfection. I don't always agree with the paths they choose, but I've met a lot who wowed me with their devotion, and their spiritual progress. On an individual basis, it isn't so different from any other spiritual journey.
• Failing to be interested in the Nicene creed does not disqualify a person from being a Christian, Skrik. But how can a person who doesn't believe in the divinity of Christ be called a Christian? Not snarking, it just seems rather oxymoronic to say, "I'm Christian, but I don't believe Christ is divine."
• Preview: Fully agree with path. I have many Christian friends of varying degrees of devotion, and they're intelligent, reasonable and open-minded. Like Islam, I think the moderate majority is getting drowned out by the loudmouthed fundamentalists.
• The trouble with toleration of other regions is that sooner or later this means you are supposed to be tolerant of stupidity. This is, I find, so much easier to do when folk keep their opinions to themselves.
• Hee hee. Bees wins.

• But how can a person who doesn't believe in the divinity of Christ be called a Christian?

  Well, given it's a belief that goes back to early Christianity, pretty easily. There are three main strands of thought on tha nature of Christ: the most common holds Jesus was both fully divine and fully human; a second holds that he was fully divine, and only appeared human; a third holds that Christ gave up his divinity while human, and was fully human as Jesus. The first of the three is the one that got the political sanction of Rome, and the other two have been persecuted as heresies ever since, pretty much until the arrival of the modern secular state (which is ironic, considering the theocratic longings in the link that kicked this discussion off). Many of the folks who have believed Christ was divine generally consider it blasphemous to suggest the divine would taint itself with sinful flesh. The folks who believe Christ was fully human, OTOH, generally feel that unless Christ was prepared to fully give up divinity, the suffering on the cross is rendered immensly less meaningful - the wholly human nature is required for the suffering and sacrifice to cleanse original sin.